Building bridges across the Pacific (hktdc.com)


	New York architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien won an international competition to design the new Asia Society centre in Hong Kong

The New York-based Asia Society is spending over half of a HK$778 million (US$100 million) expansion on a new centre in Hong Kong.

The non-profit organisation was founded in 1956 by John D. Rockerfeller 3^rd to foster understanding between Asians and Americans. Its aim is to build bridges across more than 30 countries through art exhibitions and performances, films, lectures, seminars, conferences and education.

New York architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien won an international competition to design the Society’s new Hong Kong showpiece, which occupies an historically and environmentally significant site behind Pacific Place in Central. They enlisted a local partner, AGC Design Ltd, to help materialise their visionary design, which involves a delicate mix of restoring old colonial buildings and creating new ones.

The HK$404 million (US$52 million) centre located near the British Consulate includes a café, conference centre, gift shop and exhibition space. It will take the form of a glass and granite box cantilevering over a ravine filled with giant banyan trees. The building will be nearly hidden by the trees and its lush roof garden, which will include a reflecting pool. The project will also include the renovation of two mid-19th century munitions buildings and a lab building that will be turned into a theatre, a museum, and offices.

Unique site

"The site is an amazing one topographically (combining a flat area, a very hilly area and a water channel); horticulturally (an incredibly green area with huge banyan trees and date palms); and historically," architect Tod Williams said. "It would be hard to find such a site anywhere else in the world."

Billie Tsien, his wife and architectural partner, added that as a US-born Chinese American, it was exciting to have such a symbolic project as their first public work in China.

The hands-on supervision that local architectural firm AGC brings to the partnership will be invaluable in bringing the project to fruition, Ms Tsien added.

"I think that the partnership allows us to better understand how things are built in Asia. Being from the US, we can design with a certain freedom from a perspective outside of the local scene, while Grace Cheng (from AGC) is the day to day person who has the most contact with the site.

"We never come with preconceptions about what the design answer will be. We always want to start anew with an understanding of the site, the clients' needs, the local building material and the knowledge that can come from working with a good partner."

The project is now under way, and due for completion at the end of 2008.